Fitzjerald & Autumn
by Dragonartist
Summary: autumn the absol is caught by a trainer and fitzjerald tries to get her back
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

_The wind feels nice here. Calm...and cool. A welcome break from the stuffy air of the city._

Autumn lay in the grass, just breathing in the crisp wind. Fitzjerald had suggested that they relocate to avoid capture, and separation, as much as possible. She didn't mind, this place was wonderful. Before, they had been near Fallarbor; her fur still reeked of ash. Autumn wasn't sure where exactly Fitzjerald had lead her this time, maybe Fortree or Verdanturf. She hoped it was near Fortree. It rained often there, in the out skirting grassy fields. She loved to dance in the rain, Fitz would just find shelter as soon as possible and wait for her to come home, sopping wet but happy.  
"I hear something...I can't tell what. A trainer maybe?" Fitzjerald, her flygon traveling companion, interrupts her thoughts.  
"I hope not, not right now anyway."  
Fitzjerald stiffened as he strained to hear what was coming and gauge whether or not it was a threat...

_It's definitely a trainer; I can hear their voice and extra poke balls bouncing in their pack. Hmm.. _I think we should move, Autumn. We don't want them to try and catch one of us." Fitzjerald suggests.  
Autumn rolls over in the grass, "I think you're right, Fitz. We can always come back later._ But sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have a trainer; to tour the world, build up my skills, become stronger._ Let's go somewhere rainy this time though, k?"  
Fitzjerald nodded reluctantly, he knew full well how she liked the rain. She smiles and gets up to follow him. They are over the next hill before the trainer comes into view. Autumn stops to look.  
It's a female trainer, with long dark hair tied back with a red ribbon; a small houndour walks beside her, seemingly bored with their journey. "Come on, Autumn." Fitzjerald had noticed her stall and is impatiently waiting for her. Autumn gives one final glance to the trainer before following Fitzjerald to the next location.

_Why is he so worried about being caught? Has he had a trainer before?_ Autumn ponders Fitzjerald's strange reaction to the trainer the whole way. The way he seemed desperate to _avoid_ trainers versus battle with them. She knew asking him about it would go nowhere, so she simply settled for pondering and wondering about it.  
"We'll stay here for a while." Fitzjerald announces.  
Autumn can feel the wind blowing cold, a storm would be in short order. She smiles, thinking about the storm, as she follows Fitzjerald into the cave.  
Waiting for the storm to hit grew boring rather quickly. Autumn clicks her claws on the rock floor and then starts to scratch writing into the wall.

_I wait for you eternally__  
and yet you never come.  
I want to know your cold embrace  
but..._

She screws up her face trying to think of the next line, _I never was good at poetry, o well._ Thunder rolls in the distance and Fitzjerald snores beside her. She rolls her eyes and skirts around him to get outside. The wind feels wonderful after the stuffy heat of the cave. She begins to spin and dance out of happiness, faster and faster circles and then elaborate patterns. She starts to hum a melody she remembers from long ago and soon, it's just her and the storm. Rain swirls around her, lightning dances in the sky, the thunder drums a base beat to her song and then...something hits her head; round with red and white. Her vision blurs then she's somewhere else, looking at the mechanical surroundings. She panics, rushing around and banging against the sides of this...thing. A bright flash of white light and she's in the storm again, facing a frustrated-looking trainer. Autumn lowers her head and growls, _How dare they interrupt me._ Her horn begins to glow, _That trainer's pokemon doesn't look that tough. I'll make them pay for stopping my dance._ She makes a sideways slashing movement, sending the attack toward the trainer's pokemon and hitting it squarely. It stumbles but recovers easily. _It's a houndour, and its trainer wants to catch me._ she realizes as it sends a flamethrower towards her. She tries dodging but it's too fast, she's badly burned. Crying and in pain, she doesn't even flinch when the poke ball flies at her again. She doesn't struggle this time, moving hurts too much.

_This place isn't that bad, I guess. It's...different, though._ She glances around the inside of her new poke ball; wincing occasionally at the pain from her burns. She hears a voice calling her. Well, she _thought_ it was calling her, "Absol! Join us!" She leaps through the light and lands on the grass in the storm, _What now? Am I supposed to battle in this condition?_ She looks around but the landscape is empty. She looks back at the trainer, confused. The trainer motions for Autumn to come over to him; she complies, her legs starting to shake from weakness. He sprays something in her face. She winces, but merely from surprise, the pain in her burns had began to ebb and fade.

_Meanwhile..._

Fitzjerald rolls over and yawns. He looks over to see a partial poem scratched into the wall and Autumn's empty sleeping rock. He jumps to attention, _She should've been back by now, the storm's over._ He looks outside, the water drips off the stalactites at the entrance as a rainbow fought with the sun in the sky. He runs outside and calls Autumn...no response. He flies over the area and saw a space of grass that was churned up, filled with absol tracks. He lands and as he stands surveying the area, he manages to piece together what he had hoped to never happen.

Autumn blinks several times, "What was that stuff, medicine?" She shakes out her fur. The houndour smirks at her discomfort, she glares at it furiously, it was the reason she had needed whatever-it-was in the first place; it was also the reason for her capture. "I have a feeling we're not going to be very good friends, pup." Autumn intensifies her glare still more.  
It falters slightly under her gaze but manages a reply, "I don't understand why you're angry with me. I merely did what was asked of me. It's in my nature to be obedient."  
"Yeah, and it's is my nature to be free." She growls, anger welling up inside her, she wants to fight. Yet, another feeling, one of calm and tranquility, overtakes the urge to fight. Autumn finds it harder and harder to stay mad at the houndour, eventually giving up on it. She trots over to her new trainer and sits down at his side, she feels compelled to do so. The trainer's hand pets the top of her head absently; it felt wonderful. _Is this what it feels like to want to purr? Can an absol purr?_ Autumn leans into the gentle hand, enjoying every second of the houndour's envious stare.

...

"Absol! Use Slash!!" Autumn races toward the other trainer's poochyena and rakes her razor-sharp claws across its body. The poochyena howls in pain, staggers and eventually collapses. _One hit and it's down, that poochyena's pathetic..._ she thinks as she watches it go down. A smile creeps across her face as the feeling of power from defeating the poochyena flows through her.  
"Great job Absol!" Her trainer runs to her, petting her for winning the match.  
Autumn nuzzles the trainer's face; she loves having a trainer. Yet, in the back of her mind, a thought of Fitzjerald awakens. _I wonder how Fitzjerald is taking my disappearance?_ She ponders this for only a moment then pushes it from her mind, immersing herself in the moment of victory once more.

_Autumn...where are you?_ Fitzjerald searches endlessly for his traveling companion. His search, however, is in vain; Autumn and the trainer who caught her are gone. He feels the sadness welling up inside him as the search stretches from minutes to hours, his throat grows tense, and his vision blurring with tears. _She's gone..._"She's GONE!!" he roars into the evening twilight. An entire day had passed, and she was still gone. Defeated and his spirit as low as it could possibly be, he leaves the valley...alone.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_My trainer is so much fun. I wish this could've happened sooner._ This seemingly random thought reminds Autumn of something Fitzjerald had once said, a long time ago. He had expressed that being caught is a bad thing and all trainers are mean and nasty. Autumn bought this story; she had been young and impressionable at the time. But now she that she was older and experiencing having a trainer herself, she loved it. Stargazing by the fire at night, just her, her trainer, and the houndour, whose name was Trigger, watching the sky. _I wonder...what kind of heartless person could've been Fitz's trainer? Who could've been so mean to make a pokémon hate all trainers?_ Autumn sits inside her poké ball and ponders these questions, starting to remember more and more about Fitzjerald. Then, without warning, a psychic vision hits her.  
It was one of the past, she could sense it, a tall imposing figure stood before her. His expression was one of hate and loathing. "I can't believe it...of all the pokémon I could've gotten, I got a useless trapinch." He kicks Autumn, or rather, the pokémon whose memory Autumn was channeling. Her vision blurs, the pokémon was crying. _I couldn't get away...I was too slow. This is my punishment for being slow..._ The vision begins to fade.  
Autumn emerges from the vision, shaking her head to clear it. "That was, Fitz, when he was little." she gasps, for some reason channeling the memory was physically tiring. "That explains why he hates trainers and humans in general. I understand now. _I wonder if he could ever learn to have a trainer again..._ she wonders as she gently floats off to sleep.

Fitzjerald sat in a pool of his own self-pity. He was truly a pathetic sight. Since Autumn disappeared, he has cried himself to sleep most nights. He walks everywhere because he's too sad to fly and becomes depressed whenever something reminds him of her.  
He was sitting on a grassy hill, watching a storm roll across the sky and thinking of Autumn, when a claw taps him gently on the shoulder. A female flygon gives him a worried look as she sits next to him. "What's wrong?" she asks, genuinely concerned for Fitzjerald.  
"A friend of mine was captured. I can't find her." he manages to answer between sobs.  
"Oh, that happened to me once." the female flygon continued, "I had a skarmory friend, his name was Blade, and he was taken by trainers in weird looking clothes." she furrows her brow in thought. She takes to glancing between Fitzjerald's face and a spot on the ground, like she wanted him to look at her but she was afraid of him looking her in the eye.  
"Autumn. She was an absol, my friend and companion all through childhood." he blinks away tears, reminiscing about Autumn made him miss her more, "I...had been abandoned by my trainer because...he thought I was...weak and... useless."  
"Poor baby." She says in a comforting tone, stroking back his antennae.  
"He released me after catching a poochyena. I remember it because it left scars." he leans his neck over and points at the base by his shoulder. Three thin strips of lighter green stands out against his skin. He lifts his arm and shows a U-shaped formation of scars, a bite mark. The female flygon just looked at the scars in horror. Fitzjerald just sat quietly, his expression moving from sadness to anger, "He left me in critical condition. Just walked away and I, the young and stupid pokémon I was, clung to life believing he'd come back. But the hours passed, it grew dark and cold. I had come to realize that he was long gone. I would've given up right there if I hadn't seen...her."  
"Her?"  
Fitzjerald nodded, "Autumn. She was like a pokémon angel glowing orange against the shadows of night. A shiny absol had come to me, a lowly and critically injured trapinch on the verge of death. She had worry written in her face as she approached me, dropping a berry in front of me to ask if I was alright." he smiles at the fond memory, it had made him feel better, "I ate the berry she gave me and we never left each other's side since...til now, that is."  
The female flygon nods along to his story, edging in closer every once in a while until she was laying her head on his shoulder. She looks down the road below them, a shadowy figure is visible in the distance, "What do you think that is?" she asks him pointing.  
Fitzjerald looks to where she points, "It's probably just some trainer." he looks to the ground, "We should probably go. Don't want to get caught." he starts to get up.  
The female stops him, "No, stay with me. Besides, you could probably defeat that trainer. A big, strong flygon like you." she flirts.  
Fitzjerald settles back down stiffly, "I suppose, if I tried I probably could." a little sideways smile crosses his face, "Yeah, I can take it."  
"Of course you can." she agrees. The figure had gotten closer now; close enough to tell it was a male trainer dressed in a dark and well-worn purple jump suit. It had white pin striping on the seams, looking somewhat like a racing outfit. Closer still and they could see the orange pack, stained from traveling. The figure stops directly below the pair and looks up, Fitzjerald recognizes him, "It's _him_." he growls.  
"Who?"  
"The trainer that abandoned me." every feature of Fitzjerald's face contorted with hate, "I'm going to teach him a lesson." with that, he dive-bombed the trainer. Plunking down in the middle of the path, blocking any further progress. Fitz lowers his head and growls, challenging the oblivious trainer to a battle.  
"What the...a flygon." the trainer smirks, "Don't have one of those yet. Go, Mightyena!" he hurls a poké ball into the sky. It snaps open to pour the white light onto the ground, revealing a large and scruffy mightyena. It growls as the sky darkens, the sun had set now and a nasty looking storm had started to roll in.  
Lightning flashes as Fitzjerald and the mightyena stare each other down.  
"Mightyena, bite attack, now!" the trainer issues the call and the hound runs forward, teeth bared.  
Fitzjerald just waits until the mightyena is close enough before delivering a swift uppercut to its lower jaw, causing it to yelp in surprise as it tumbles to the side. It shakes its head, growling at Fitzjerald, "Blast you!" it yells, "Wait a minute...those scars. Are you that pathetic little trapinch I pulverized when I was a pup? Thought you'd be dead by now." it smirks, awaiting response to the taunt.  
Fitzjerald cracks his knuckles, "For one, I'm not a trapinch anymore. For two, I don't take kindly to being left for dead." Fitzjerald sends a steady glare into the mightyena's eyes, hardly blinking.  
The mightyena falters, quite intimidated.  
"Mightyena! What are you waiting for? I gave you and order! Bite, again!" the trainer yells impatiently.  
Mightyena gathers itself and launches at Fitzjerald again. Fitzjerald counters with a kangaroo-style kick and a fire blast, singing the hound's fur.  
The trainer grimaces as he recalls the mightyena, "Blasted worthless pokemon." he mutters as he brings out another poke ball, "Go, Jynx!" it appears with a smooch and a wink to Fitzjerald.  
"Jynx, Ice Beam."  
Fitzjerald had no time to dodge as the freezing blast hit him in the chest, winding him and leaving him severely weakened.  
The female flygon moves slightly as if she wants to help him but doesn't want to get frozen, "Come on, Fitz! You can handle this thing."  
He rises slowly, snorting fire out his nose angrily, "Never underestimate the will power of a mad dragon."  
"Jynx, Sweet Kiss." the jynx blows a kiss to Fitzjerald.  
He ignores the little heart that floats toward him, flicking it away from his face. He lunges forward, biting firmly onto the Jynx's shoulder and blasting fire directly onto it.  
It shrieks shrilly as its energy drains. In the confusion, the trainer tries a poke ball.  
Fitzjerald releases the Jynx to crunch down on the poke ball with his teeth, shattering it into several pieces.  
The Jynx sways and topples over, its weakness to fire too much to overcome. A vein throbs in the trainer's temple as he recalls the jynx. He unclips his third and final poke ball, "You'd better not faint." he mutters to it, "Go, Dragonite!" the light forms into a tall, round figure. Wings sprout as the color floods the form and a beautiful dragonite stands before Fitz, waving girlishly.  
"No flirting with the enemy! Dragon Claw, Now!"  
The dragonite pouts before she lashes out with glowing claws.  
Fitzjerald dodges and tries to strike back. He knows he doesn't have a lot left to give in this fight and that he'd be caught if he lost, "I refuse to belong to that trainer ever again." he swings his tail, knocking the dragonite off balance and ending her attack. Fitzjerald stands and pants heavily, "I will not lose to your pets, Jeremy!" Fitzjerald points a claw at the trainer, his point clear even though the trainer couldn't understand the pokemon language Fitzjerald was using.  
The dragonite struggles back to her feet, waiting for another order from her trainer. The trainer narrows his eyes at Fitzjerald, "Leave it, I don't have time for this."  
Fitzjerald and the dragonite get puzzled expressions at his readiness to give in, "Return." the ball shoots the familiar red beam toward the dragonite and she dissolves, returning to her ball. Jeremy turns and walks back the way he came, muttering something about wasted time and poke centers.  
Fitzjerald sways slightly and collapses, to energy of staying upright became too much. He breathes deeply as the female flygon approaches, "Are you alright?" she cradles his face in her claws to look him in the eyes.  
He struggles to stand again, brushing the dirt off himself, "I'll be fine. We should move on." he turns to smile at the female.  
"You want me to come with you?"  
"Sure. We can help each other. Me to help you find Blade and you can help me find Autumn."  
She smiles and nods, walking over to him and taking his arm. The two then take off into the sky, regardless of the storm, and fly side by side into the horizon.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Fitzjerald recovered quickly from his battle injuries but the hole in his heart from Autumn's absence is still there and pains him greatly. The female Flygon, whose name is Ruby, has become Fitzjerald's mate and traveling partner. They have begun a joint effort to track down Autumn for Fitzjerald.  
She nuzzles his neck affectionately as they stand surveying a valley, "Where should we look next?"  
A light breeze nudges Fitzjerald's antennae, making them wave slightly before he replies, "Somewhere trainers gather. A tournament maybe. Autumn is a strong absol, her new trainer is bound to enter some kind of tournament battle with her."  
"Or take the gym circuit." Ruby offers, leaning into Fitz and curling her tail around him.  
He nods, "Or that." he pauses for a while, thinking. Finally continuing, "We don't even know what the trainer looks like. Our only hope would be if Autumn is out of the ball." he seems to be dipping into depression at the scope of their situation.  
Ruby tries to pull him out of it, "I'm sure we'll find her. We can watch tournaments on the big screens and look for a trainer using an orange absol. There can't be that many, can there?"  
"No, Autumn's the only one I've ever seen. Still, the odds are grim."  
"We still have to try." Ruby straightens up and moves away from him, glancing back with a come-hither expression on her face as she swoops down into the valley, gently soaring on the breeze.  
Fitzjerald smiles as he follows her, gliding side-by-side with her to the nearest town and the hope of finding Autumn.

Autumn and Trigger hold battle stances against their opponents, two zangoose trainers that had challenged them to a match.  
Trigger growls as one of the zangoose raises its claws to them, awaiting the trainer's first order. Trigger had been well trained so he wouldn't move until ordered but this zangoose test his patience and loyalty.  
"Absol! Slash. Trigger! Flamethrower. Respective targets." their trainer issued first. The command meant they each target the pokemon, in this case zangoose, directly in front of them.  
"Crush claw." the two trainers reply simultaneously.  
Trigger dashes forward, a thick jet of flames flowing from his mouth and singing his zangoose's fur.  
Autumn's front claws glow white as she runs to her target, jumping at it and drawing back to strike. The zangoose retaliates by plunging its own glowing claws into Autumn's side, knocking her off the attack path and causing a great deal of pain.  
Trigger growls at Autumn's attacker, dodging his own target's crush claw. He barks worriedly at Autumn as she struggles to stand.  
"Absol, water pulse. Trigger, bite. Absol's target."  
"Shadow ball the houndour!"  
"Finish the absol with Shadow claw!" the zangoose trainers issue their next attacks. Their zangoose glow with dark energy as they prepare the ghostly attacks.  
Autumn swings her head around in circles, conjuring water from the surrounding forest for her attack as Trigger charges Autumn's target and latches onto it with powerful jaws and causing the zangoose to dance in pain, swinging Trigger around in an attempt to dislodge him.  
The other zangoose holds a finished shadow ball in its claws, waiting for an opening to strike Trigger.  
Autumn gathers enough water to blast the zangoose but can't for fear of hitting Trigger as well.  
"Absol, other target." the trainer replies, realizing her blunder.  
Autumn complies, firing her watery attack at the other zangoose and enveloping it in a strange echo. It emerges with wet fur and a loopy expression, throwing the shadow ball haphazardly before fwapping itself on the side of its face and tipping over, eyes swirling.  
The attack misses Trigger but barely, clipping the tip of his short tail causing him to let go in a howl of surprised pain.  
One of the zangoose trainers recalls his fallen pokemon and the other looks annoyed at the state of his injured zangoose.  
"Fury swipes!" he shouts, so angry he forgot to issue a target.  
The zangoose winces as it tries to move the arm that Trigger had been biting, abandoning the idea and charging Trigger with one set of razor sharp claws and raking them across Trigger's body before he could react. Five strikes later, Trigger stumbles a bit and the zangoose backs away. Trigger stabilizes and growls at his attacker.  
"Absol, razor wind. Trigger, finish with iron tail." his trainer finally issues their attacks.  
Trigger's tail stump glows as he runs toward the remaining zangoose. Autumn begins to conjure a whirlwind as Trigger jumps backward into the zangoose, knocking the wind out of it.  
The zangoose stumbles and wheezes, trying to catch its breath. It raises a claw just before Autumn releases her attack and a tornado of sharp debris whips toward the zangoose, enveloping it in prickly stabbing pain.  
It lays on the ground, eyes swirling in defeat.  
Autumn and Trigger give each other small smiles before their eyes roll back in their skulls and they collapse, tired from the long fight.  
The trainers recall their respective pokemon. Autumn's trainer steps forward, offering her hand, "Good match." she smiles.  
The two zangoose trainers glare at her, turning and running down the path without so much as a second glance.  
She frowns, shrugging as she makes her way down the path in search of the next town.

Fitzjerald and Ruby soar overhead, they had seen the battle but had been too far away for details, "That sort of looked like an orange blob. Think it might've been Autumn?" Ruby asks, hoping to raise Fitz's spirits a bit.  
"Can't hurt to follow the trainer for a while. Best lead we have so far." he replies as they angle to follow the young trainer down the path.


End file.
